Three-Dimensional Printing of Synthetic Core Plugs as an Alternative to Natural Core Plugs: Experimental and Numerical Study

Abstract

This paper proposes three-dimensional (3D) additive fabrication of synthetic core plugs for core flooding experiments from spheres and grains of Berea Sandstone using a digital particle packing approach. Samples were generated by systematically combining the main textural parameters of the rock reservoir to design synthetic core plugs Numerical flow simulation was per-formed using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) to verify the flow distribution and permeability for comparison with the experimentally measured permeability and to that obtained from correlations in the literature. The digital porosity of the sample was compared to the porosity measured using an HEP-P helium porosimeter. The numerical and experimental results for permeability and porosity differed by a maximum of 18%.